Wall-closure construction.



B. C'. ROCKWELL.

WALL CLOSURE CONSTRUCTION.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 9, 191a.

Patented Dec. 4, 1917- BYRD c. nocxwnLL, or CAMDEN, ARKANSAS.

WALL-CLOSURE CONSTRUCTION.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 4, new.

Application filed October 9, 1918. Serial l lo. 124,708.

To all whom it may concern: 7 Be it known that I, BYRD C. ROCKWELL, acitizen of the United States, residing at the city of Camden, county of Ouachita, and

State of Arkansas, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Wall- Closure Constructions, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification.

This invention relates to certain improvements in the construction of closures of a sort which are designed to be supported on hinges for closing wall openings.

While equally applicable to other uses, it is designed particularly for use in screen doors which are designed to be hung so that they will close against one side of the door casing.

As is well known in the trade, handlers of builders supplies are accustomed to keep on hand doors of stock form designed for sale either for use in new structures, or forinstallation in old buildings. As is particularly true in the case of screen doors, a large portion of stock forms are sold for installation in buildings which are already standing, and hence arises the desirability of providing a form of door which is applicable as universally as possible to wall openings of different sizes, and which is susceptible of accurate fitting to the wall portions in order to form an efiective closure.

My inventionv contemplates in the first instance, a form of door which is designed to be hung on hinges in such relationship to the wall opening that it will close against one side of the casing rather than against stops within the opening itself. In this fashion, I render a-stock door of a given size applicable to door casings of a great variety of sizes, as it becomes unnecessary to have the. door of the same dimensions as the wall opening in order to make a proper fit and effective closure.

. In the fitting of a door to close against the face of the. casing, however, provision must be made for a certain amount of fitting to accommodate or compensate for certain irregularities in the face contour of the casing, as it is a common circumstance that door casings frequently become warped and out of alinement from various causes, such as settling of the building. Finally, it is 'desirable that the construction of the door be .such as to render its closing as noiseless as possible and to obviate the possibility of injury or defacement of the casing on the surfaces with which the door makes contact.

It is the object of my present invention, therefore, to provide a door construction of such nature that a door of a given'size may be used to form an effective closure for any of various sized wall openings, and which construction permits of a suitable fitting of the door to the casing, which is as nearly silent as possible in operatiom and which obviates injury or defacement of the casing. Other and further objects of the invention will be obvious or pointed out hereinafter.

In the accompanying drawings, I have illustrated specific embodiments of my invention, although it is obvious that the invention may be incorporated in other forms.

In these (lraWings Figure 1 represents a side elevation of the upper portion of a door frame in which my invention is embodied;

Fig. 2 represents a cross section through the upper rail member of such a door frame showing its disposal in relation to the door casing;

Fig. 3 is a perspective detail showing the construction of one form of the door frame material;

Fig. 4 is a longitudinal section through a frame member of one form;

Fig. 5 is a similar longitudinal section through frame material of another form;

. Fig. 6 is a cross section through a frame member constructed of materialof the form shown in Fig. 5.

In the embodiments illustrated, I have shown a form of door construction which is applicable to any sort of a light wall closure, and it will be understood that the use of the term door in describing the invention is not for the purpose of indicating that it is limited to doors per 86, as it is designed for As will be best understood by reference to Figs. 3 and 4, the rail and stile members are provided on their inner sides and ad acent their outer margins, with dressing strips 5. These dressing strips may be formed integrally on the frame members, or theymay be formed separately and attached to the frame members, as illustrated, for example, 1n Figs. 5 and 6. The characteristic feature of the dressing strips is that they be made of wood or similar readily workable material, and that their surface contour be sinuous or wavy, as illustrated in Figs. 4 and 5, and, furthermore, that they be formed in material in such fashion that the grain, or natural lines of cleavage of the material, run transversely of the convolutions, z. a, longitudinally of the trip. It is desirable also that the convolutions be relatively close together, and that their high points be in alinement. These convolute dressing strips run continuously longitudinally of the rail and stile members, so that they meet at their extremities at the miter joints.

Extending longitudinally of the rail and stile members along the dressing strips thereon, are flexible buffer members. These buffer members or buffer strips include the flexible attaching portion 6 and the contact lportio'n 7. The formeris a comparatively thin flexible heet, such as a sheet of' fabric,

' which is suitably attached along the longitudinal edge of the door frame member. In the forms illustrated, this attachment is shown as made by seating the edge of the flexible member together with a key strip 8 in a groove extending longitudinally of the frame member. It is obvious, however, that any other suitable form of attachment may be employed. The contact member 7 is in the form of a thick bead disposed at the free edge of the flexible member 6. It may be formed by inclosing a suitable cord or flexible tube member within a fold of the flexible member 6, as in the manner illustrated. The disposal of the buffer member on the frame members is such that the contact member 7 will overlie the dressing strip 5, and will extend outwardly beyond the face of the frame when in contact with said strip. Guide portions 9 may be arranged to direct and retain the contact portion of the buffer strip upon the crest of the dressing strip throughout its length.

The buffer member so disposed, as will be obvious in Fig. 2, when the door is hung against the casing, will form a yielding bufling strip for making contact with the casing continuously along the rail and stile members. This buffing strip will be eflective in holding the door frame members slightly apart from the casing so that the former cannot lam against the latter, while at the same time an effective and tight closure is provided. Any .suitable sort of spring may be employed for pressin the door to closeit against the casing, an due to the yielding nature of the buffer strip, the closing of the door against the casing will be comparatively noiseless, and the latter will be protected from injurious impact of the frame portions.

In case it becomes necessary or desirable to vary the line of contact of the bufling strips to accommodate irregularities or disalinement in the door casings,,such a fitting may be accomplished by suitably trimming down the high portions of the convolutions of the dressing strip. This may be readily accomplished with any ordinary WOOd-WOIlQ ing tool, due to the fact that the grain of the material runs transversely of the convolutions. The flexible buffer member will accommodate itself to the variations in the height or contour of the dressing strip made in this fashion, thereby accommodating the irregularities in the casing and permitting .a continuous contact of the bufler member upon the casing throughout the length of the former. In this fashion, a complete and efiective closure is eflected.

I am aware that the structure herein illustrated and described is susceptible of various changes and modifications not specifically referred to but comprehended nevertheless within the scope and spirit of the invention as indicated in the following claims. 7

Having thus described my invention, what I desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A closure for wall openings arranged to be hinged to a wall structure and having 'a dressing strip arranged adjacent its margins on the side against which it closes, said dressing strip being formed with longitudinally spaced supporting protuberances of severable material, and a bufler strip of yielding material disposed over the dressing strip and supported on the protuberances for engagement with the side of the wall structure.

2. A wall closure comprising a door member arranged for support against a wall structure, said door member being provided with a dressing strip of readily severable -material disposed adjacent its margins on the side designed to cooperate with the wall structure, and a buffer strip of yielding material mounted on the door member adjacent the dressing strip and having a contact portion adapted to overlie and contact with the dressing strip so as to protrude partially beyond the side surface of the door, said buffer strip including a flexible attaching portion connected to the door member at one side and carrying the contact portion at its other side, whereby the contact portion may be swung off of the dressing strip to permit the shapin f the latter.

3. A door member having a 115111110115 naaaaoa buffer strip of yieldable material adjustably supported on one side thereof, and a dressing strip of severable material disposed to retain the buffer strip at predetermined positions, said dressing strip having a series of longitudinally spaced protuberant portions for contact with the buffer strip.

4:. As a new article of manufacture, a wall closure including marginal members provided with dressin strips of readily dressible material exten ing longitudinally there? of and lying below the side surface plane thereof, and bufier strips extending longitudinally of said members and arranged for cooperation with thedressing strips whereby a portion of the buffer strips are retained above the side surface plane of the marginal members, for contact with the wall upon which the closure is designed to be hung.

5. As a new article of manufacture, a wall closure arranged to be hinged to a wall structure, said closure being provided with dressing strips of readily severable material on one side thereof followin its marginal contour, a buffer strip of yie ding material arranged to be supported by the dressingstrip with a portion extending beyond the general side surface plane of the closure, and yielding pressure means efiective to press the dressing strip upon the louder strip when the latter is in contact with the Wall structure. i

6. In a building structure, the combination of a wall structure, aclosure therefor movably supported thereon, a buffer strip of yieldable material carried by the closure adjacent top and slde margins thereof and arranged for contact with the wall structure beyond the general side surface plane of the closure, and a comparatively narrow dressing strip of wood or equivalent readily severable material carried by the closure in cooperative relationship with the buffer strip for predetermi'ningthe position thereof With respect to the general surface plane of the closure.

In testimony whereof I hereunto affix my signature, in the presence of two witnesses, this 5th day of October, 1916.

BYRD C. ROCKWELL.

Witnessesi M. P. SMITH, C. S. BUTLER. 

